Utah Teacher Gives Controversial Homework Assignment To Students That Invades Family Privacy

Over the past year, there has been a rise in controversies pertaining to schools, specifically teachers and how they treat or teach their students. The Inquisitr has stayed up-to-date with the latest when it comes to this situation. Apparently, some teachers are finding sexual satisfaction with their students, including a substitute teacher partaking in oral sex in one case, and two Louisiana teachers having a threesome with a teenage boy in another. Then there’s the Oregon teacher who ripped off the shirt from one of her female students during a confrontation.

The aforementioned reports are conflicts that occurred during inappropriate relationships or disagreements, but what if a teacher causes controversy simply by how they teach? Well, that may be the case with a Utah teacher who gave their students a controversial homework assignment. The task: Take inventory of what is inside their medicine cabinets back home.

According to an article by WHNT 19 News, students in a health class at Mapleton Junior High School were given the controversial assignment that raised a few questions — and eyebrows — for parents. Concerns became more prominent when a copy of the paper with instructions was uploaded onto social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The Nebo School District quickly jumped on the matter, stating the assignment is not only a violation of privacy, but also state HIPPA laws.

However, it should also be reported this is the teacher’s first year teaching. The purpose of this homework assignment was to teach students and their parents how to keep their medicine cabinet up-to-date. Lana Hiskey of the Nebo School District verified this.

“This was an innocent mistake. It was part of a health unit. [The teacher] wanted parents to know how to clean their medicine cabinets.”

The assignment explains that one of the reasons for drug abuse is due to the fact that people aren’t safely disposing their medications. The instructions, however, were quite detailed, stating that students were asked to look in their medicine cabinets and report back medication names, what it is being used for, and if it is still being used. That probably is fine for Tylenol or Advil, but what of drugs of a personal nature like Zovirax (genital herpes) or Combivir (HIV) were in the cabinet?

KSL Utah also reported on the matter, in which the copy of the assignment caught the attention of Deidre Henderson. The State Senator for the 7th District in South Utah County agrees there is a drug abuse problem in the county, and students need to be educated on the matter. She does continue on to say the assignment misses the mark.

“So this is a health teacher with good intentions, really well-meaning, but misguided in what she thought was appropriate in an assignment given to kids.”

The Nebo School District said that they met with the teacher and concerned parents and are confident that an assignment like this won’t be sent home again.

What are your opinions about the homework assignment? Do you think it was truly an invasion of privacy or an honest mistake of a first-year teacher with good intentions? Sound off below!